


With Sweet, Reluctant, Amorous Delay

by Magnetism_bind



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Apollo!Thomas, Biting, Blow Jobs, Costume Parties & Masquerades, M/M, Marking, Masks, Odysseus!James, Tumblr Prompts, garden makeouts, handjobs, semi-roleplay, thigh appreciation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 18:09:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11087127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnetism_bind/pseuds/Magnetism_bind
Summary: For the Flinthamilton prompt: "There's no way you're getting me in /that/"Thomas takes James to a costume party.





	With Sweet, Reluctant, Amorous Delay

James takes one look at the costume laid out on Thomas’s bed and shakes his head in instant objection. “There’s no way you’re getting me in that.” What the devil does Thomas think he is? An actor? 

“It’s a masquerade ball.” Thomas says patiently from the dressing room. “The whole point is to wear a costume.”

“And what are you going as?” James asks suspiciously. The simple idea of the party seems like a trap solely to get him in a skimpy costume for Thomas’s own amusement. What is the point of this when they could simply stay at home and be naked in bed where it’s comfortable? The whole thing is unnecessary. 

“I will be going as Apollo.”

“So you’re going as a god, and I’m going as...”

“One of the most legendary characters in literature.” Thomas’s voice is muffled. “Just put the tunic on.”

James sighs.

He looks at the tunic and short cape again. He frowns at the sandals on the floor. Why has he agreed to this?

From the dressing room comes the sound of faint absentminded humming. James listens for a moment, and then sighs as he starts to remove his uniform. He's doing it for Thomas of course. Thomas wished to go to a party together; this is how they would accomplish that. A masquerade where will no one will recognize them, where no one will think anything of their presence together. Thomas wants to go, so James will go.

He draws the tunic up over his bare shoulders and sighs again as he examines himself in the mirror. He looks ridiculous like this. Still, resolutely he fastens the sandals and settles the belt on his hips. 

There’s a step in the doorway behind him and he turns to see Thomas watching him. “I need help fastening this.” James murmurs, unable to take his eyes off Thomas who looks like a god indeed.

There’s a wreathlet of green ivy upon his fair hair, and the pearl white tunic he’s wearing leaves little to the imagination of his well-formed body. The tunic falls to mid-thigh and James, who has every intimate knowledge of those thighs, is mesmerized by the sight of them so openly displayed.

“Look at how beautiful you are.” Thomas murmurs. He moves to stand behind James, reaching for the pin to fasten the tunic in place. “Look at you.” He places his hands on James’s shoulders, spanning the broad width of them with appreciative palms.

James eyes himself again in the mirror. He still finds his reflection ridiculous, but he gathers this isn’t Thomas's opinion. “And why exactly am I going as Odysseus again?”

Thomas’s hand drifts all the way down his back, with just a light brush across his backside. “Because I like to think of you always returning home to me.”

James colors faintly, but at the same time he turns his head to meet Thomas’s gaze, allowing Thomas to see the smile on his lips. “And do you also like to think Odysseus and Apollo were lovers?”

“If Odysseus were as handsome as you, how could Apollo have resisted?” Thomas brushes his lips over James’s mouth. “Now, let’s us be off.”

 *  *  *

The sandals fit James’s calves _perfectly._

Thomas keeps his sigh of satisfaction to himself as he watches James move through the crowd of people. James’s mask is blue and gold, disguising half his face. His bare shoulders gleam golden in the candlelight, his freckles scattered across his skin like stardust.

The gold and white mask on Thomas’s face keeps his features protected, allowing him a certain illusion of freedom for a night. It's not everything, but he'll take what he can get. He smiles as a nymph and a faun run by giggling. The ballroom is warm with laughter and dancing couples. 

Thomas knows this is a silly idea, wanting to have James by his side at a party, but it’s just a personal fancy. He should be able to take James to a party without thinking of the consequences. He should be able to kiss James wherever and whenever he chooses. 

But he's not, and for a moment, his heart is bitter with the reminder of how unfair society is. 

Thomas walks out upon the veranda, letting the welcome dark cool his cheeks. He sighs, resting his hands on the railing as he looks out at the moonlit garden. It’s beautiful in the night, and he wishes this melancholy would pass.

There’s a whisper at his ear. “Would Apollo join a lowly Greek in a walk through the garden under the moon?”

In spite of his melancholy Thomas finds a smile forming on his lips. “I think Apollo could be persuaded.”

He follows James down the veranda steps into the shadowy garden.

 *  *  *

James leads him first down one path and then another, wandering first this way and then that, until they’re well away from the noise of the party. Here the moonlight falls in thin ribbons, dancing among the shadows as the warmth of summer fills the air. There's no one else around and James draws Thomas close to him, dropping their masks to the ground as he kisses Thomas's throat, his hand sliding over Thomas’s chest.

“You looked like a god in there.” James murmurs against his ear. “I would build a shrine to you, I would heap offerings upon it and worship you day and night.” His mouth presses hotly against Thomas’s throat, eliciting a groan from Thomas’s lips.

It’s Thomas’s turn to voice his appreciation. He presses James firmly up against the stone wall, setting his mouth to James’s skin. “I want to mark every inch of you.” Thomas whispers. “But you wouldn’t be able to hide it, not in this short a robe.” He trails his hand over James's bare thigh and James shivers. 

“So I’ll just have to mark you where it won’t be seen.” He goes to his knees, and pulls the hem of James’s tunic well above his thighs.

James sucks in a breath, watching the golden head kneel between his exposed thighs.

Thomas places his mouth gently on James's skin, navigating his path up James’s left thigh. He licks in a teasing circular swirl over firm muscle before setting his teeth to it.

James strangles the groan welling up on his tongue. Thomas’s teeth graze and tease over his thighs in a pattern of his own making. It’s tantalizingly repetitive and utterly agonizing. Thomas smooths his skin with his thumb, licks the selected spot and then bites.

It's not long before James’s cock juts out between his thighs, pressing against his underclothes, tenting the front of them in an unmistakable arousal. He makes a frustrated sound in his throat. 

Thomas simply ignores it, and moves to James’s other thigh. His hands and mouth move confidently in the moonlight and James gasps.

“God, _Thomas._ You can’t leave me like this.”

“Would you beg Apollo?” Thomas gazes up at him, his eyes shining in the dark. “Would you beg a god to take you in his mouth?”

“I would.” James whispers. “For that honor, I would ride to the foothills of Olympus itself and beg for your mouth.” He hardly knows what he's saying here in the sweet summer air with Thomas's hands on his body and the moonlight filling his mind with tales of another time.

Thomas stifles his groan in the warmth of James’s thigh. “What else would you have a god do?”

“I would have you lay me down on the grass, there at the foot of the mountain.” James’s voice is softer than the night breeze, as seductive as the dark itself and Thomas presses his own thighs together, quelling his desire. “You’d strip off my tunic without a care, and leave me naked for all the night to see.”

Thomas draws his underclothes down, freeing James’s cock. “What then?” There's a bead welling on the tip, waiting for his tongue and he can't resist tasting it.

“We fuck in the dark.” James says crudely, knowing Thomas’s hum of delight around his shaft is one of approval. “God and warrior together. You’re so strong, but you chose me because I was a match for you, because you admired my strategy on the battlefield.”

Thomas hollows his cheeks, taking him deeper, urging him to go on.

“You wooed me for months.” James murmurs, leaning his head back against the stone. “You left me gifts of sweetmeats and songs, horses faster than the wind, and a ship to take me wherever my heart desired, but all I wanted was you.” His fingers curl through Thomas’s hair, blunt affection overtaking his need for control.

“So I went to you.” James breathes. “And then as you touch me at last, as your hands move over my body, opening me as I invite you, clinging to you, wrapping myself around you as you move in me, the heavens burn brighter than ever before and the night expands in an explosion of stardust.”

Thomas swallows his own stream down with a smooth groan. After that he draws off with a sigh, letting James's spent cock slip from between his lips. He wipes his mouth on the back of his hand before staring up at James.

“You.”

James merely reaches down and drags him to his feet. He gets his hand down Thomas’s underclothes, stroking roughly as he claims Thomas’s mouth, tasting himself on Thomas’s tongue as his other hand caresses a nipple through his tunic. 

“Come for me.” James whispers. "Come for me, Apollo."

Thomas’s cock thrusts greedily between his fingers as Thomas loses himself to the taste of James’s tongue. He sighs his love across James's mouth as he comes, cock caressed by James's hand until he's completely spent.

For a moment Thomas can see nothing in the dark as he leans against the wall panting. Then the moon shifts slips from behind a cloud and Thomas’s vision returns in time to see James eyeing the mess upon his hand with a rueful expression.

“Why the fuck didn’t the gods carry handkerchiefs?” James mutters.

Thomas laughs. He leans over and tears a few leaves off a nearby bush. “Here, my delicate warrior.”

James accepts them with ill-disguised grace. “My thighs ache.” 

“Think of how sore they’ll be later when I strip you bare at the foot of the mountain and have you ride my cock till coming of dawn.” Thomas lets his fingertips rest on James’s bare shoulder. He can't see the freckles there, but he knows they're there all the same. The knowledge comforts him. 

James flushes. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“I liked it.”

“Did you?” James says speculatively. “Then can we go home now, and take off these ridiculous costumes?”

“Oh, admit it.” Thomas strokes his cheek. “You enjoyed them.”

“Your mask, my lord god of light.” James scoops up their masks from the ground where they had discarded them.

“You say that in jest, but I quite like the sound of it.” Thomas remarks as he adjusts his mask. “Might you be persuaded to call me that in bed?”

“Something tells me Apollo could persuade me of anything.” James murmurs. He settles his own mask in place. “Homeward then?”

“Homeward, dear Odysseus.” Thomas agrees, letting his hand linger in James’s until they reach the end of the garden and then reluctantly they part. It’s a temporary loss of contact. He knows this. There will be the carriage ride back to the house, and then the slow sweet undressing of James and while Thomas savored the words James said, it is James’s body that Thomas plans on worshiping tonight with his whole being.

The moonlight follows them through the trees and back into the ballroom. The darkness is only temporary after all, there is always the coming of the dawn.  


End file.
